


Hold Me Close

by SerenePhenix



Series: Voltron Whump Week 2017 [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Sickfic, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 10:38:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11804325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerenePhenix/pseuds/SerenePhenix
Summary: Keith was not made for the cold.





	Hold Me Close

Keith didn’t remember falling asleep. For that matter, he could not remember where he was.

He tried rolling onto his side, just to get more comfortable, but his entire body felt heavy with his muscles unwilling to cooperate.

He blinked up at the ceiling blurring in and out of focus. Blueish-grey.

Was he at the Castle? He didn’t recognize the place…

His eyes snapped open again when he realized they’d slipped shut without him meaning to.

What was going on? Why was it so hard to remember?

He felt like it was important…

There was something missing…

His voice wouldn’t come the first time, his chattering teeth and strained voice making it hard to form the name.

“Shi- sh- Shiro?”

Where was he? He wanted Shiro. He wanted… he did not want to be wherever he was. He did not want to be alone.

It was so hard staying awake.

Not even the quiet noise in his ear was enough to keep him from slipping into the numb and comforting darkness.

* * *

 

Consciousness returned when his body was being moved. He grunted wanting to lash out and bat away at the offender. His limbs were stiff by now.

His eyes would barely open a slit.

“Dad?”

He lacked the breath to speak, his lungs not working properly, the air coming in too fast and ragged.

His father stilled, the hands reaching out towards him only a few inches shy of touching him. Something tingled at the back of Keith’s mind, a question concerning the strange attire his father was wearing.

It meant precious little and fled his mind as fast as it had come.

With a monumental effort he managed to lift his arms just high enough for his dad to catch up onto what he wanted.

The whine hurt his throat as his numb, gloved fingers tried to hold onto whatever part of his father he could get ahold of. But he was shaking too hard from the effort, trembling head to foot as strong arms slid under his neck and lower back.

Keith did his best to help his father along the way but there was just no strength left in his bones. All he could manage as he remained limp in his dad’s arms was to turn his head into the man’s broad chest.

He groaned when the stupid helmet made it awkward and uncomfortable.

His hand, the one not trapped between his side and his dad’s torso, snuck up to his chin, trying to wedge under the rim and get the irritating piece of armor off.

The gentle grasp of another hand prevented that, guiding his hand back to rest against his stomach.

He could hear a voice, distant and far away. The words were lost to him but the tone was low and soothing and familiar, lulling Keith back to sleep despite the rocking and jostling.

* * *

 

When he regained his senses, Keith moaned deep in his throat.

The air had changed. His skin felt wrong and he tried scratching at it.

There was loud splashing and a gasp and before anything could have prepared him for it Keith found himself submerged.

Every nerve end was fired up by adrenaline and fear, searing and burning. Still, it helped little as he flailed helplessly, some kind of fluid flooding his mouth and nose.

His hands could not fully grab onto anything, his feet slipped from right under him when he tried to get up.

Panic set in and did not fade even as someone’s hands hooked under his armpits to haul him up and out of what Keith finally recognized to be a tub filled with water.

He hacked and coughed as he was being laid onto a hard surface, trembling miserably, leaning into the warm hands cradling his face.

“Keith? Keith, can you hear me?”

He opened his eyes, the world around him a blurred mirk, yet too bright and painful to look at.

His eyes snapped shut promptly but not without the outline of scarred face and a tuft of white hair burning itself into his retinas.

“Shiro?”

He sounded drunk, the word slurred beyond recognition. Besides, everything else sounded like he was underwater.

“Keith… Keith, do you know where you are?”

Keith did not care and he made sure Shiro knew by simply pressing his cheek harder into the man’s hand.

There were other voices and low murmurs, all too distant and quiet for him to catch on. But they did not matter to Keith.

All that mattered was that Shiro was finally here.

That he hadn’t left him.

That Keith was not on his own again.

The thought was enough to make him feel safe and all he needed to let go.

* * *

 

It took Keith a moment to find his way back to the world of the living.

The first thing he noticed was that he was warm. It wasn’t the same warmth he remembered from the desert and his shack. That dry heat that had always seemed to press down on him from all sides, making every little movement and any kind of task a real pain.

This one was different, seeping into his body slowly and giving him strength instead of draining it from him.

Keith let out a sigh, burying his head into the giving surface under him. He was about to drift off again when a pair of arms tightened around his shoulders and back  – one smooth yet hard, the other warm and supple. Awareness slammed into Keith like Hunk when he had tried to combine their Lions that first time.

He blinked open his eyes, squinting at the dim lighting. He was in the lounge area with the sunken couches, which were currently occupied by all of his friends and teammates. Blankets and pillows that had not yet been claimed by any of the humans and Alteans were strewn around the area, Keith himself being wrapped up in at least two. And right under him was Shiro, snoring lightly and sleeping like Keith had not seen him do in some time – not ever since rescuing him from the Garrison anyway.

That realization was shocking enough for him to almost miss that he was in nothing but a pair of loose briefs ad a shirt that was a little too big for him while being cradled by his friend.

He was utterly and hopelessly disoriented.

He couldn’t remember how he had gotten here, why they were having some kind of sleepover or why he felt like he could use a week in a cryo-pod.

But there also was something else.

A tapping of fingers, quiet and restrained but Keith would recognize Pidge’s harsh and quick typing anywhere by now.

He shimmied as much as he could in Shiro’s hold so he could turn his head to look in the direction where the noise was coming from.

Pidge’s face was illuminated by the cold light of her screen, her glasses reflecting in such a way that Keith could not see her eyes.

With her hunched shoulders and the downturned corners of her mouth, she looked downright unapproachable.

He did not know how but she must have felt his gaze on her, because after a few minutes in which Keith’s eyelids had started to tug down every few seconds while staying closed for longer intervals each time, she suddenly snapped her head around to look directly at him.

The bruises under her eyes looked terrible but could not dampen her hopeful expression.

She was obviously about to shout something in excitement when Hunk gave a loud, rumbling snore that startled both of them.

They just caught a glimpse of Hunk’s gaping mouth before he turned in his sleep and further into Lance’s side, the latter completely unperturbed by the ruckus.

Keith found it interesting to note that the obligatory face mask was missing for once.

There was the sound of something snapping shut and Keith watched as Pidge darted over to him with enviable stealth, sitting next to him and Shiro with her knees drawn up to her chest.

Her chin came to rest on her knees, her whisper so quiet Keith had to strain his ears to catch it.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

She regarded him for a long while, looking intently at his face obviously searching for something. Keith couldn’t say what she was thinking or what emotion he was seeing in her caramel-brown eyes but it was solemn and he did not like it.

And anyway, the staring was kind of making him feel awkward and self-conscious. He could already feel the tips of his ears getting warm.

“Are you alright?”

She gave a bark, her hands flying up to her mouth to muffle any further sound. They waited in the ensuing silence, holding their breaths, afraid one of the others might have been woken up but the snoring and deep breathing did not hitch, their friends remaining blissfully asleep.

Despite his relief, Keith was still disturbed by how shrill and distraught that laugh had sounded.

“I’m the one that should be asking.” She gave him a meaningful look. “How you feeling?”

Keith was tempted to dodge the question but there was this tiny voice at the back his head telling him it was a very bad idea, not when his friend looked so distressed and worried.

“Like Red sat on me.”

It drew the barest of smiles out of her but it did not wipe away the furrow between her eyebrows.

“Quite the opposite, actually. You know, maybe her sitting on you would have been an improvement.”

The joke was lost on him and Pidge’s chuckle died in her throat when she noticed his confused expression.

“You don’t remember?”

“Remember what?”

He knew he should not let his disorientation and impatience color his words but he had never liked being left out of a conversation, out of the loop.

It reminded him too much of all those conversations in hushed whispers behind kitchen doors standing ajar in the middle of the night, as whatever family he was staying at the moment was talking about him behind his back, thinking he was still in his room fast asleep.

“The mission on that ice planet? The one where you and Shiro were supposed to scout?”

Keith felt his own eyes widen, minutely shaking his head. His mind came up blank. The exhaustion and weakness clinging to his muscles, slowing down his thought process, were not helping.

Pidge gave a dismissive wave of her hand: “Don’t worry. It’s not that important and there wasn’t anything to find there anyway.”

That last bit came out strained and Keith wondered if she felt guilty. Which did not make any kind of sense to him…

It was quite remarkable how quickly she recovered.

“We hoped you could tell us what went wrong because we’d suddenly lost your signal and then you didn’t answer your comms and when Shiro finally was able to find you thanks to Red you…”

She suddenly stopped and to Keith’s mounting horror there were tears gathering in her eyes.

What in Seven Sam Hills had happened?

“Hey, it’s okay.”

Of course it wasn’t. He didn’t even have the faintest idea what she was talking about, but Keith knew that he had to console her. That much he had learned during his stay in this Castle with the same seven people for months on end.

He was just relieved that Pidge was one of those people that did not require any of that touchy-feely business, much like him. And seeing ashe was currently being restrained by a hug that was equal parts enjoyable as it was confining, he wasn’t left with many options in the first place. And really, he had no plans of getting out of his predicament simply because it was the one person he trusted more than he did himself.

She obviously was thinking along the same lines, her smile more indulgent and amused than truly convinced. She wiped at her nose, giving a long snuffle. It was clear she wanted to add something, deciding against it though, simply grabbing a pillow and lying down so that they could still look at each other.

The quiet was safe and comfortable and something Keith could work with.

The gentle bobbing of Shiro’s chest was calming, making him drowsy. Keith wasn’t going to fight it anyway – their exchange, as unproductive and short as it may have been, had sapped him very quickly of whatever strength he’d had left.

Still, he wiggled his arm out from under him and from within the folds of his blankets to offer his slack hand to their youngest member.

A gesture that was very much appreciated; Pidge instantly cradling his fingers with both her hands as though she was holding onto something precious. It made Keith’s heart jump in that manner he had yet to get used to with these strange people he had ended up with in space by chance – the feeling of being welcome and loved.

He still had trouble wrapping his head and heart around it, and he more often than not needed Shiro to ground him when he was about to question it all but deep down, Keith already knew that he had finally found that warmth he’d been yearning for so long.

_Family._


End file.
